#gamergate (chug whatever you have, and if you're male, apologize to women around you)

As usual, I'll have a bottle of Fireball Whiskey handy, because fireballs, cinnamon, and it's already cold up here (Montreal) at this time of the year.
But I might swap alcohol shots for shots of chai tea, because I'm getting old and the weight loss and the healthiness and etc., etc....

BONUS: Want to get your drinks on early? During the Opening Ceremony, drink every time Chris Metzen makes a gesture with a closed fist. (Keep your bottle handy, try not to spill too much.)

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Haven't played the Beta.
Haven't payed close attention to the Alpha or Beta.
There's so many things added to the game and it's challenging to go through all the content to figure out everything.

Here's a quick rundown of the things you might wonder about when you step into Warlords of Draenor.

What's my faction's main city in Draenor?Horde:WarspearAlliance:Stormshield
They are located in Ashran - it's an island to the East of your map. You can get there with flight masters. In the Beta, it was possible to swim there or use an aquatic mount, but it might be different Live. (There's also a mage portal from your garrison)

Where do I get Draenor profession skills?
They're changing a lot of things to professions (and I won't go in detail about that), but here's how you access Draenor skills.

Fishing: Just start fishing to get the skill item skill item. Also low chance of item dropping from mobs.

Hey where are the crafting percs that gave a special boost to each profession?
They’re gone. You can thank min/maxers for forcing their raid members to choose specific professions because Blizzard “forces” them to do it. Since that’s not fun for everyone, Blizzard decided to remove them to let people choose the profession they want.

Hey where are the racial bonuses that made some races better for specific raiding roles?
They’re gone too. You can thank min/maxers for that one as well, for the same reason.

I log on my Night Elf and I have a weird druid buff on sunlight/daylight over my head, but I’m not a druid! WTF?!
Don’t panic. It’s the new Night Elf racial Touch of Elune that does that, depending on what time of day it is in-game at the moment. I think it’s pretty snazzy.

Gear changes
Other than the item squish, there’s a few interesting things you should be aware so you’re not freaking out:

There’s no set gear or super-duper trinkets in LFR (regular trinkets will drop)

There’s no item upgrades on gear (sad ethereals are sad)

Quest rewards have a low chance to end up in your bags as rare or epic versions

Items can end up having 3 different ways for items to be better. This means that the same item can be looted multiple times, but the item stats may be different every time (think Diablo 3 items). They can be Warforged quality, have an extra gem socket, have one of a few choices of tertiary stats.

How do you start your garrison?
After the starter quest chain to get to Draenor, it’s one of the first quests you’ll get. No way around it, no way to miss it.
Check the garrison simulator on Wowhead if you want to understand how it will expand (I think it’s important).
The follower system and everything after that - experience it for yourself. Right now it's so complex on paper, it's giving me a headache.
But to explain it quickly - you can send followers on missions to gather things for you: resources, mats, gear, weapons, buffs, etc. And all while you continue playing the game.

Garrisons tip: Buildings take 1 hour to build, so go queue their construction up as soon as you are able.

Why should I care about having a garrison?
Having buildings will give you buffs and chances of getting better items, mounts, transmog, etc.
All buildings have 3 tiers and they give better things every time.
So the advantage is to start on them asap because you start getting perks right now as you are trying to get to level 100.
How about having an NPC that will tank mobs for you NPC that will tank mobs for you?
How about a potential increase on all your rewards a potential increase on all your rewards?

Where's my Azeroth Choppers mount?Alliance: Have 100,000 gold handy and go to Old Town in Stormwind and talk to Paulie. He'll sell you a Champion's Treadblade. There seems to be no possible discount for that mount. EDIT: It seems like the mount is currently not in game and we have yet to get an answer from Blizzard as to why this is happening.Horde: If you've logged on a Horde character between July 25th and September 30th 2014, you already have it in your Mount collection. It's called Warlord's Deathwheel. (I currently cannot find any info on another way to acquire it)
And - no. If you have one of the choppers on one faction, you don't immediately get the equivalent on the other faction.

Hey I had the Timeless Isle mega-achievement/time waster Going to Need a Bigger Bag started but I can't find it in the Explorer section of the Achievements window!

Nope, but there's a ton of new pets, achievements, quests and items added to keep you busy for a loooong time.

Can I get my Legendary Cloak now?

If you didn't get it before Warlords' release, I'm sorry - the entire quest chain has been removed from the game.

Wait a second - the Achievements are saying I haven't done any Proving Grounds, but I've done them all!

Yep, that is not a mistake.

Proving Grounds have been reset and re-tuned for Warlords.

Players had been asking for Proving Grounds to be a tool of skill indication, or at least to be able to teach people the basics of their role (tank, dps, heal) so they aren't totally confused when they are stepping in group content.

So that's exactly what Blizzard has done.

But don't worry about your previous achievements - they're all stored somewhere in the new Legacy section of the achievements window.

Hey the same thing happened as well with Brawler's Guild!

Yep!

It's also been reset and re-tuned for Warlords.

We're now in Season 2 of Brawler's Guild, and all your previous achievements are in the Legacy section of the achievements window.